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The Traveler had little interest in the apparatus and walked back and forth behind the Condemned Man, almost visibly indifferent, while the Officer took care of the final preparations.

Despite being confronted with the prospect of an execution, the Traveler is apathetic at the story’s beginning, demonstrating a callous disregard for human life. This disinterest carries through the entire story because although the Traveler is horrified by the injustice and brutality of the apparatus, he does nothing to indicate he is truly interested in human life. He does not intervene when the condemned man is put into the apparatus, nor does he act when the Officer himself goes into the machine. He does not stay to report to the Commandant, and he does not help the condemned man or the soldier when they follow him. The Traveler’s consistent indifference demonstrates a central idea in the story about the callousness of humanity. While the Officer represents an element of horror with regards to the evil men do to one another, the Traveler represents a similar horror in his unwillingness to do anything to protect his fellow man in the face of evil.

The Traveler was thinking: it is always questionable to intervene decisively in strange circumstances. He was neither a citizen of the penal colony nor a citizen of the state to which it belonged. . . . The injustice of the process and the inhumanity of the execution were beyond doubt.

After learning of the barbarous means of judgment in the colony, the Traveler is revealed as a bystander in the presence of evil. He knows what’s happening is wrong, yet he chooses to do nothing. His rationale is that people might challenge his opinion because he’s a foreigner, and he does not want any trouble. Still, he believes he’s been invited to give his opinion on the practice, yet he does not want to do so because it could lead to his own discomfort if he is put into a position of having to defend his beliefs. He clings to the idea that he is there merely as an observer to absolve himself of any guilt. The banality of this kind of inaction is seen throughout human history as a force of evil in and of itself, and the Traveler demonstrates that principle, showing that bystanders who do nothing in the face of evil are contributing factors to the perpetuation of that evil.

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